Excise seizes 8,500 litres of spirit

Kochi: After a lull, spirit smuggling resumed in Ernakulam as around 8,500 litres of spirit was recovered by the excise officers in two seizures reported at Kalamassery and Aluva on Wednesday night. Out of this, 1,400 litreswas seized from 40 cans kept in a truck that was bound to Idukki. The remaining quantity was seized from a paint godown at Edayar industrial area in Aluva in a raid held based on the details collected from the truck driver. Two people have been arrested on Wednesday night itself and another person, who went absconding, was arrested on Thursday evening.

The arrested have been identified as Baiju alias Kuttappai, 50, of Thammanam, Sam Kumar, 38, of Thrikkakara, who are the driver and cleaner of the truck respectively, and N V Kurian, 65, of Kaloor, who is the owner of the godown. The officers suspect that the spirit was smuggled to make spurious liquor in the guise of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) as they seized bottle labels of several IMFL brands too from the godown.

The seizure was made by the state excise enforcement squad with the help of Aluva excise range officers. According to the officers, the truck was intercepted by the team at Kalamassery around 9pm of Wednesday. The 40 cans, each with a capacity of 35 litres, were packed in cardboard boxes and claimed to be sanitizer that were being transported to Idukki. The details collected from them led to the seizure of 203 cans of spirit from the secret underground cabin of the paint godown at Edayar.

Assistant excise commissioner (Ernakulam) B Tenymon said that Kurian was arrested from his house at Kaloor but he has been admitted in Aluva Taluk hospital as he was physically unwell. “ A case has been registered under Section 55 of Abkari Act. Samples of the spirit will be given to the Regional Chemical Examiner’s Laboratory, Kakkanad, for testing,” he said.

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